


Surprises

by Starfleet_Command_Unit_Bi



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-25
Updated: 2020-01-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:08:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22401553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starfleet_Command_Unit_Bi/pseuds/Starfleet_Command_Unit_Bi
Summary: Giles and Jenny get a surprise on Halloween night
Relationships: Faith Lehane/Buffy Summers (Background), Jenny Calendar/Rupert Giles
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	Surprises

**Author's Note:**

> A fic from a few years ago that I found going through an old USB. Hope you enjoy

“Rupert, sweetheart, I’m pretty sure that these will be enough decorations,” Jenny said as softly as she could whilst her husband put up what looked like the fiftieth hanging bat in the store. “It’s getting to the point where I don’t think people will be able to tell what’s actually being sold here. You know, the actual purpose of a store.”

“Yes, but it’s halloween, we have to decorate for that,” he insisted, climbing down off the step ladder. “See, makes it much more suited to the season.”

“You’re not wrong there,” she admitted, leaning into his chest as she looked about the store. Ignoring that it was completely overdone, the decorations were quite nice. Bats and cobwebs and stickers made to look like shadows were on almost every surface, adding to the effect of all of the occult products that lined the shelves. It was quite impressive. “Maybe it’s not  _ too _ bad.”

“I think the children shall love it.”

“Of course they will. But maybe don’t push it so much. We’ve had a pretty big problem with halloween in the past and they may not be thrilled by the reminder of it. Might want to have a quiet halloween this time,” Jenny reminded him. Rupert said something she didn’t quite catch before pressing a kiss to her temple and holding her to him even tighter.

They stayed like that for a few minutes, letting themselves rest against each other before the kids showed up and ruined the peace that had settled over the shop. Jenny found herself wincing as the pain in her gut flared up again. It had been on and off since she’d woken up that morning and had now began to hurt her back too. Exactly what she wanted before a night of trick or treating with the Scoobies.

“Are you alright, darling?” Rupert asked, noticing how she tensed.

“Yeah, yeah, just a stomach ache,” Jenny promised, turning to give him a kiss on the cheek. The conversation would have turned a little more serious as a discussion of her health if it hadn’t been for the kids storming into the shop with their costumes. Nothing was particularly extreme, all remembering what had happened when they were transformed into their characters and no one wanting to relive it. 

Jenny kissed his cheek one more time, pulled back for a quick peck on the lips, and squeezed his shoulder as a reassurance that she was okay. If she wasn’t she would have pulled him aside to tell him, or ducked out of the probably light-hearted festivities. Quickly the shop was filled with the chatter of young adults, discussing their college courses and how much candy they were planning on getting from their pre-planned course. The kids would never grow up too much, enough that Jenny felt comfortable to forever call them kids.

“We all ready to get going?” she asked the group, when it became clear that Giles wouldn’t be interrupting them. “Have you guys got plans once we’ve finished?”

“If it’s not too late, we’ll go to some more houses, if not we’re gonna go home and eat our candy,” Buffy told her. “So you two can have a night in together, since you keep looking at each other like that.”

Jenny walked behind the pack, arm in arm with Rupert, and felt the pain almost doubling her over by the end of the route. They had cleared the houses in record time, bags filled with candy, and the Scoobies were off to some of the further away houses because apparently they had no concept of what their physical consumption limits were. She was convinced they would be together in hospital by morning. 

“Are you sure you’re alright, darling?” Giles insisted on their drive home, unusually silent without her usual talking. “A stomach ache can be quite serious, you know. Has it settled anywhere in particular? Do you think it could be your appendix? That can  _ kill _ , Jenny, you know that.”

“I know, which is why you can rest assured that I had my appendix removed when I was a teenager. And the pain is now split between my back and my stomach so that you can now make a more in-depth diagnosis.”

“We can take a quick trip to the hospital. The kids won’t need to know,” he told her quietly a few minutes later. Jenny laughed.

“Rupert, it’s just a bit of pain that will be gone by morning. You don’t need to worry so much, baby. I’m gonna be okay. Why are you turning towards the hospital? You were supposed to be relieved by what I said.”

“Do you know the only time you’ve ever admitted to something actually hurting you without prompting was after a ceiling collapsed on you, the time that you were dead for a few seconds,” he said. “You’ve been hurt quite badly before and never admitted it when I asked, you’ve had paper cuts and small bruises that you’ve never admitted hurting you. If you tell me you are in pain, it is only reasonable for me to assume that you are in too much pain to not be at the hospital.”

Jenny fell silent after that. She was in a lot of pain, it was why it had slipped out when talking to Rupert earlier in the day, but she said that it wasn’t too bad. Although, she supposed, for her to admit it, she had to face the fact that it was taking a bigger toll than she initially thought. Rupert reached over for her hand and pulled it to his lips to kiss it as he looked for a parking spot. She was oddly touched by the gesture. 

“I love you, darling.”

“Even if I’ve magically regrown my appendix and they take me away for testing?” Jenny teased. Getting out of the car, she felt the pain get worse again but this time it remained worse. “Baby, I think I might need some help here. I-I don’t think I can walk. My back and my stomach and…”

“It’s alright, darling, I’ve got you,” he said, practically sprinting around the car to reach her quickly. At any other time she would have been strangely amused to see her awkward, tweed-wearing husband sprinting but she was decidedly in too much pain to manage that. 

They were set up with a doctor running checks on her within ten minutes, almost entirely due to the fact that they practically had loyalty cards at the hospital. She was asking what sounded like routine questions for whatever could be causing the pain, based on symptoms and her many previous injuries and ailments.

“Have your periods changed recently from what you consider normal?”

“They’ve been getting lighter for the past year or so but most women in my family tend to reach menopause pretty fast so I figured I was just reaching that.”

The doctor’s face scrunched in thought slightly, made a few notes, and called out to someone else down the hall. “We’re just going to run some blood tests. We’ll be back with you quickly. Unfortunately we can’t give you any pain relief until we know exactly what’s going on with you.”

“That’s alright,” Jenny told her, gripping Rupert’s hand a little tighter as another wave of pain hit her. “Just a quick question, how quickly can you run those tests and find out what’s wrong?”

“As quick as I can, Mrs Calendar, I promise you. Ah, here we go. Now, this might pinch just a little bit but it won’t last too long and then we’ll be running the tests as fast as we can. Neither of you have problems with needles do you?” 

Both shook their heads, Rupert watching Jenny’s face carefully. It was clear, even to complete strangers, that she was now in a lot of pain and he just wanted, more than anything, to make it go away. Unfortunately, it was a fifteen minute wait before they got any news back, in the form of a very big surprise.

“Okay, this is going to be a big shock but you’re in labour,” a nurse told her, walking swiftly into the room with a lot of medical equipment.

“And you’re in the wrong room,” Jenny replied. 

“We just had your blood tests back; you’re in labour. We compared them to the tests from your release last year just to double check. Now, you need an ultrasound to figure out the situation and then you’ll start having to push soon. I’m aware this must be quite a shock to you both but please be patient.”

Jenny was silent as they prepared for the ultrasound, barely flinching as the cold gel was rubbed over her stomach. It was only when they saw the shape of a baby very clearly on the monitor did they react at all. Rupert gripped her hand tightly, so much so she worried briefly about the state of her fingers when this was all over. She felt her free hand drift down to her stomach where a nearly full-sized baby was, looking like it would be born at any moment to her tired and frazzled mind.

“Oh, that’s, that’s an actual person … inside of me. Right now. Wanting to come out,” she managed to say faintly, turning to face Giles. “That’s a person, Rupert.”

“I know, darling, I know. How are you feeling?”

The look she gave him apparently conveyed her every emotion because he shut up again and went back to holding her. As they stayed there, processing the nuclear bomb of information they had just received, the doctor and nurses started setting everything up for Jenny to give birth, because that was something that was going to happen, apparently. 

“You’re at ten centimetres, Mrs Calendar,” the doctor told her an agonising hour later. “Do you feel the need to start pushing yet?”

“A bit, I, um,” Jenny managed to say before tensing up and finally understanding what that meant. “I need to push, I need to push now!”

“That’s good, you just follow the nurse’s instructions, she’s done this hundreds of times before. You’re in good hands. I don’t think you’ve got much longer left now.”

The doctor wasn’t wrong, Jenny knew in the back of her mind, when a screaming and wailing person finally came out of her, wrapped in a blanket by the nurse only a few minutes later. To every other part of her mind, it had felt like it was five hours later and a much longer time than he had said. Rupert had held her the entire time, rubbing her back and pressing kisses to her face and hair, coping much better than she was. It was strange to be in that position.

“Would you like to hold your daughter?” the nurse asked, showing them a baby wrapped in a pink blanket. Jenny was too tired, she knew she was too tired, and looked helplessly at Rupert. He let go of her for the first time in hours and took their daughter, looking tiny against his long frame. “We’ll give you all some time.”

“That’s a person,” Jenny said dumbly, staring at them. “We made a person and we didn’t even know about it.”

“Well, you did most of the work, darling. I wouldn’t exactly say my part in this was any great difficulty,” he replied. “She’s truly so … small. I know everyone says it but, I understand it now, I think.”

They fell silent again, watching their daughter sleep. 

“What are we going to do?” Rupert asked in a small voice. “I know we said we wanted children, and that certainly hasn’t changed for me, but this one seems quite sudden. We don’t even have anything to dress her in, or a way to take her home. No name yet.”

“We’ll figure something out, we always do. We will,” Jenny said with as much conviction as she could manage. “Sweetheart, I know we need to talk, we have a lot to talk about, but I’m so tired and still hurting and I just want to sleep.”

“Rest, love, we’ll be here for when you wake up. I won’t go anywhere, I promise.”

Jenny woke up feeling tired down to her bones and aching pretty much everywhere. At first, she assumed another ceiling had fallen on top of her, because that had caused very similar symptoms and had also made her feel like she was dead. She had actually been dead for a few moments because of the ceiling incident so it felt like it matched up. But when she woke up, she was confronted with her husband holding a tiny baby and talking to it so softly it hurt her heart it was so cute. 

“Hey,” she said, a little hoarse. “How are you two?”

“A lot better now that you’re awake,” Rupert replied, leaning over to kiss her firmly. “Are you feeling any better?”

“Still tired, still in pain, but I am better. Could I, could I hold her?”

They made the exchange carefully, Jenny holding her daughter as if she was made of the most fragile glass, something that could break terrifyingly easily. Staring down at the girl’s face, she wondered if she could make out any of hers or Rupert’s features. Maybe her nose could have been Rupert’s, her eye shape could have been Jenny’s but she wasn’t sure. She was too tired and too stressed to try and figure it out. 

“I don’t get it but I already love her so much. I don’t understand how, I’ve only known about her for a few hours and I was asleep for most of them, but I love her,” she admitted tearfully. Her daughter opened her eyes, pale blue, like they were for most babies, she remembered vaguely. Her brothers had been bright blue when he was born but they’d quickly darkened to look like the rest of the family. 

“Have you any ideas for names?”

“None whatsoever. Nothing seems good enough, you know? I know you have just by looking at you,” she grinned. He attempted to look innocent but his expression still seemed a little guilty. “Come on, Rupert, spill. What were you thinking?”

“Janna. For you.”

Of all the names in the world, Jenny didn’t expect that.

Of course Rupert knew her actual name, she would be insane not to tell him before they were married, as well as with her family history colliding with Slayer work on multiple occasions, but she never thought it would matter to her future. Jenny had never thought she would have a future to consider names, even married to Rupert there were still uncertainties in her mind.

“You don’t have to like it. We don’t have to decide anything just yet,” he reassured, reaching over to stroke the baby’s cheek. Janna’s cheek, Jenny tested, wondering what it would be to say that name everyday, to feel all of this love for someone at the mention of something she had hidden about herself. A part of her history for her daughter.

“I like it. Janna Calendar-Giles. I’d suggest your name first but Janna Giles sounds like child abuse, you have to admit,” she grinned sheepishly.

“Janna Calendar-Giles it is. We have a daughter, Jenny,” Rupert almost whispered, gleefully, and they shared a loving kiss. “Hello, Janna. We love you so very much.”

“Yes, we do. Oh, we love you so much.”

There was some sort of scuffle outside the hospital room and they prepared themselves for whatever could be attacking them this time. Instead of a threat, the Scoobies burst in through the door, followed by Joyce looking harried and carrying a large number of dusty boxes. Janna stirred a bit and let out a whimper but was otherwise unperturbed by the interruption. 

“Oh, wow, that’s like, a person,” Buffy said, staring at the baby in question. “Congrats.”

“They’re so small,” Willow added, holding Tara’s hand tightly. “Um, you didn’t have a bump, or anything, when we saw you earlier. Isn’t that what normally happens when babies are born?”

“Sometimes it can be a little different,” Jenny said. “How did you all get here so quickly?”

“We were worried so Willow hacked the hospital records. And we saw that you were in here and that you had a baby and so we came to visit,” Xander explained as he looked nervously between the trio. “We’ve brought some presents.”

“Most of it is just old stuff from when Buffy and Faith were babies that I figured you would need,” Joyce says, placing some of the boxes down. “A baby carrier that you can use as a car seat, a little crib that you can use whilst she’s small, some feeding bottles, that sort of thing. And the kids picked out some clothes. It’s pretty useful that there are so many shops open at ridiculous hours.”

Jenny noticed how Faith was standing slightly separate from the group, staring at Janna with a strange look in her eyes. She looked like she didn’t quite know how to act. Everyone else had begun to coo over Janna, bringing out various onesies and soft toys. There was a small bag clutched in the girl’s hand, from the same shops that the others had picked out their gifts from. Buffy saw how nervous her girlfriend was looking.

“Faith, you going to show them the toy you picked?” Buffy prompted.

“Oh, it is so cute,” Cordelia added and, not for the first time, Jenny wondered if the other girl knew her comments were a confidence boost or if she just wanted to make sure her opinion on it got across. “Such a good find.”

Faith reached into the bag and brought out a small bat, its wing floppy and made out of the softest material Jenny had ever seen. There was a cute smiling face on it with vampire fangs stuck on with white felt and it was just the right size to be tucked against Janna, her tiny fist clutching it tightly. 

“It’s wonderful, Faith, a very good pick,” Giles told her, stammering over his words in an effort to reassure her nerves. It really was a sweet gift, especially from a girl who probably didn’t have any childhood toys of her own. 

“What’s the little one’s name, then?” Xander asked.

“Janna Calendar-Giles,” Rupert said proudly. “We haven’t quite decided on a middle name yet. For obvious reasons.”

“Hello, my darling,” Giles whispered to the wailing baby. “Oh, did we fill our nappy, hm? I think I can fix that, yes I can. I’m getting quite good at it, if I may so say myself. There’s a good girl, let’s just lie you down, strap you in, can’t have you falling off, you might get hurt.”

He removed the soiled nappy, cleaned her up, and slipped on a fresh one, doing up the onesie again. Janna giggled at him cheerfully, wide awake after being spoken to and played with for a little while. Giles knew he should regret it, she needed her sleep after all, but he felt so happy looking down at his daughter that he just couldn’t bring himself to. Instead he cradled her against his chest, grabbed her toy bat, her absolute favourite, and sat in the rocking chair they had bought a few days ago.

“You’ve been quite the surprise, my darling. Yes, although I suppose most things in our lives are surprises. You are wonderful and, truly, the best surprise we could have ever wished for. Your mother and I love you so very much. And no matter how big and strong you get, no matter how much of a grown up you may be, you’ll always be our little baby, and we will always love you with all of our hearts.”


End file.
